Insight for Sore Eyes

Many age-related vision problems stem from a gradual loss of flexibility and tone in the eye muscles. Eye asanas can help.

By Fernando Pagés Ruiz

Years ago, as a novice at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in New York City, I learned a series of simple eye exercises. But since I could scrutinize a fly from 100 yards, I didn't need vision training—or so I thought. Two decades later, as I struggle to read freeway signs before missing my exit, the wisdom of those eye asanas is one of the things I can see more clearly as I grow older.

Many age-related vision problems stem from a gradual loss of flexibility and tone in the eye muscles, which get locked into habitual patterns and lose their ability to focus at different distances. If you have the good fortune of excellent vision, and don't want to lose it—or, like me, you hope to improve your fuzzy eyesight—evidence suggests that yoga may have a solution. Any student of the Sivananda lineage would recognize the core exercises taught by

the late celebrated ophthalmologist William H. Bates. Bates claimed he could improve visual perception with palming, eyeball rotations, and vision shifting—the same Sivananda exercises I once treated with indifference.

Eye Savers

The late physician swami Sivananda considered sight the most abused of our five senses. The first chapter in his treatise, Yoga Asanas (The Divine Life Society, 1993), describes an extensive series of eye exercises. As with any yogic practice, the purpose of these exercises isn't just health. According to Swami Sitaramananda, director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center of San Francisco, "The fastest way to bring the mind into concentration is through the eyes."

Though it may seem fanciful, this correlation between eyes and mind has a profound physiological basis. Vision occupies about 40 percent of the brain's capacity; that's why we close our eyes to relax and fall asleep. And four of our 12 cranial nerves are dedicated exclusively to vision, while two other nerves are vision-related. Contrast this with the cardiac and digestive functions, which require just one cranial nerve to control both.

While insight may be the ultimate purpose of eye asanas, vision improvement is also an important benefit. Surprisingly, it's not the muscle stretching and contracting that seems to have the greatest effect. Relaxation appears to be the single most important element of eye health. In an experiment applying the muscle relaxant curare to the eyes, patients experienced dramatic eyesight improvement.

When Swami Srinivasan, director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch in the Catskills, teaches a beginners yoga class, he instructs the students to begin with a few minutes of relaxation in Savasana (Corpse Pose). Then he asks students to sit in a comfortable posture, such as Sukhasana (Easy Pose), as he guides them through Sivananda's basic eye asanas. "These exercises set the right tone for asana practice," explains Srinivasan. "Our organs of sight are so sensitive and influential that the normal, competitive approach we bring to exercise can be softened through working with the eyes."

The first exercise begins with the eyelids open, the head and neck still, and the entire body relaxed. Picture a clock face in front of you, and raise your eyeballs up to 12 o'clock. Hold them there for a second, then lower the eyeballs to six o'clock. Hold them there again. Continue moving the eyeballs up and down 10 times, without blinking if possible. Your gaze should be steady and relaxed. Once you finish these 10 movements, rub your palms together to generate heat and gently cup them over your eyes, without pressing. Allow the eyes to relax in complete darkness. Concentrate on your breathing, feel the warm prana emanating from your palms, and enjoy the momentary stillness.

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